If you want to get the full picture of the Twin Peaks revival, you'll need to look back at the 1992 prequel movie Fire Walk with Me.

The film chronicles the last seven days in the life of doomed schoolgirl Laura Palmer, and remains divisive among fans for its brutal violence and lack of involvement from series co-creator Mark Frost.

However, Showtime president David Nevins confirms in a new Variety profile that the events of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me remain pivotal to the revival series's storyline.

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What impact the prequel will have is unclear, since David Lynch and Mark Frost have the storyline for Twin Peaks: The Return under lock-and-key. For now, take a look at the remastered Fire Walk with Me trailer and make your guesses:

The road to getting The Return actually on-screen was a rocky one. In mid-2015, Lynch quit in the run-up to production because executives at Showtime weren't willing to give him the money necessary to make 18 episodes (rather than the 9 originally planned).

"It didn't fit into the box of how people are used to negotiating these kinds of deals," Showtime's Nevins now says. "Once I understood what the issues were from the point of view of the filmmaker, I was like, 'Okay, we can figure that out.' And we did — it turned out not to be very complicated to [resolve]."

Nevins was out of the country at the time that negotiations broke down, so he quickly got back together with Lynch to hammer out the details over fresh-baked cookies once back in the US.

"[Lynch] said, 'Give me the money; I will figure out how to apportion it properly.' And he did," Nevins remembered.

Lynch concurs with that version of events, adding that his relationship with Showtime has been "solid gold" ever since he returned to the project.

Perhaps part of the initial reluctance on Showtime's behalf to pony up more cash is because David Lynch and Mark Frost had a cast of more than 200 in mind — including returning favourites Kyle MacLachlan, Sherilyn Fenn, Mädchen Amick and David Duchovny as well as newcomers Michael Cera, Jennifer Jason Leigh and stars from Lynch's greatest movies (like Naomi Watts and Laura Dern).

Luckily, a dispute between brothers (err, collaborators) never lasts too long! Twin Peaks: The Return premieres in the US on Sunday, May 21 at 9pm on Showtime, simulcast on Monday, May 22 at 2am on Sky Atlantic in the UK.